Labor unions are among the key institutions responsible for the passage of Obamacare. They spent tons of money electing Democrats to Congress in 2006 and 2008, and fought hard to push the health law through the legislature in 2009 and 2010. But now, unions are waking up to the fact that Obamacare is heavily disruptive to the health benefits of their members.

Last Thursday, representatives of three of the nations largest unions fired off a letter to Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, warning that Obamacare would shatter not only our hard-earned health benefits, but destroy the foundation of the 40 hour work week that is the backbone of the American middle class.

The letter was penned by James P. Hoffa, general president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters; Joseph Hansen, international president of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union; and Donald D. Taylor, president of UNITE-HERE, a union representing hotel, airport, food service, gaming, and textile workers.

When you and the President sought our support for the Affordable Care Act, they begin,you pledged that if we liked the health plans we have now, we could keep them. Sadly, that promise is under threat We have been strong supporters of the notion that all Americans should have access to quality, affordable health care. We have also been strong supporters of you. In campaign after campaign we have put boots on the ground, gone door-to-door to get out the vote, run phone banks and raised money to secure this vision. Now this vision has come back to haunt us.

Unintended consequences causing nightmare scenarios

The union leaders are concerned that Obamacares employer mandate incentivizes smaller companies to shift their workers to part-time status, because employers are not required to provide health coverage to part-time workers.We have a problem, they write, and you need to fix it.

The unintended consequences of the ACA are severe, they continue.Perverse incentives are causing nightmare scenarios. First, the law creates an incentive for employers to keep employees work hours below 30 hours a week. Numerous employers have begun to cut workers hours to avoid this obligation, and many of them are doing so openly. The impact is two-fold: fewer hours means less pay while also losing our current health benefits.

What surprises me about this is that union leaders are pretty strategic when it comes to employee benefits. It was obvious in 2009 that Obamacares employer mandate would incentivize this shift. Why didnt labor unions fight it back then?

Regulations will destroy the very health and wellbeing of our members

The labor bosses are also unhappy, because of the way Obamacare affects multi-employer health plans. Multi-employer plans, also called Taft-Hartley plans, are health insurance benefits typically arranged between a labor union in a particular industry, such as restaurants, and small employers in that industry. About 20 million workers are covered by these plans; 800,000 of Joseph Hansens 1.3 million UFCW members are covered this way.

Taft-Hartley plans, they write,have been built over decades by working men and women, but unlike plans offered on the ACA exchanges, unionized workers will not be eligible for subsidies, because workers with employer-sponsored coverage dont qualify.

Obamacares regulatory changes to the small-group insurance market will drive up the cost of these plans. For example, the rules requiring plans to cover adult children up to the age of 26, the elimination of limits on annual or lifetime coverage, and the mandates that plans cover a wide range of benefits will drive premiums upward.

But the key problem is that the Taft-Hartley plans already provide generous and costly coverage; small employers now have a more financially attractive alternative, which is to drop coverage and put people on the exchanges, once the existing collective bargaining agreements are up. That gives workers less reason to join a union; a big part of why working people pay union dues is because unions play a big role in negotiating health benefits.

So the labor leaders are demanding that their workers with employer-sponsored coverage also gain eligibility for ACA subsidies. Otherwise, their workers will be relegated to second-class status despite being taxed to pay for those subsidies, a result that will make non-profit plans like ours unsustainable and destroy the very health and wellbeing of our members along with millions of other hardworking Americans.

The law as it stands will hurt millions of Americans

The leaders conclude by stating that,on behalf of the millions of working men and women we represent and the families they support, we can no longer stand silent in the face of elements of the Affordable Care Act that will destroy the very health and wellbeing of our members along with millions of other hardworking Americans.

President Obama, of course, pledged that if you like your plan, you can keep your plan. But the labor leaders say that,unless changes are made that promise is hollow. We continue to stand behind real health care reform, but the law as it stands will hurt millions of Americans including the members of our respective unions. We are looking to you to make sure these changes are made.

Six in 10 physicians said it is likely many doctors will retire earlier than planned in the next one to three years.

The same percentage say the practice of medicine is in jeopardy as medical experts lose control of their clinics and compensation with the implementation of the Affordable Health Care for America Act, or Obamacare.

President Obama, of course, pledged that if you like your plan, you can keep your plan. But the labor leaders say that,unless changes are made that promise is hollow. We continue to stand behind real health care reform, but the law as it stands will hurt millions of Americans including the members of our respective unions. We are looking to you to make sure these changes are made.

CNBC dances all around the fact that OBAMACARE and government over-regulation is causing all of this.

In a new report, Wolters Kluwer Health found that 34 percent of doctors said that over the next three to five years they would be "exploring different business models," which could include "mergers [or] becoming part of a hospital system."

In June, PwC's Health Research Institute projected a "historic slowdown" in the growth of health-care spending in 2014, saying medical inflation was likely to rise just 6.5 percent over 2013's costs.However, PwC cited two inflationary trends swimming against that current: the increasing costs of specialty drugs, and what was termed "industry consolidation."

"Over half of hospitals plan to acquire physicians practices in 2014," PwC noted. "Studies suggest that consolidation in concentrated markets can drive prices up as much as 20 percent."

The leaders conclude by stating that,on behalf of the millions of working men and women we represent and the families they support, we can no longer stand silent in the face of elements of the Affordable Care Act that will destroy the very health and wellbeing of our members along with millions of other hardworking Americans.

Obamacare Call Center Will Not Offer Healthcare Benefits to Employees:

In order to ensure Americans understand how to access the benefits available to them when many provisions of the Affordable Care Act go online October 1, the Obama administration announced last month that it is setting up a call center that will be accessible to Americans 24 hours a day.

One branch of that call center will be located in Californias Contra Costa County, where, reportedly, 7,000 people applied for the 204 jobs. According to the Contra Costa Times, however,about half the jobs are part-time, with no health benefits  a stinging disappointment to workers and local politicians who believed the positions would be full-time. The county supervisor, Karen Mitchoff, called the hiring process a comedy of errors and said she never dreamed [the jobs] would be part-time.

This pretty much sums up the success of OBAMACAREObamacare Call Center Will Not Offer Healthcare Benefits to Employees:In order to ensure Americans understand how to access the benefits available to them when many provisions of the Affordable Care Act go online October 1, the Obama administration announced last month that it is setting up a call center that will be accessible to Americans 24 hours a day.One branch of that call center will be located in Californias Contra Costa County, where, reportedly, 7,000 people applied for the 204 jobs. According to the Contra Costa Times, however,about half the jobs are part-time, with no health benefits  a stinging disappointment to workers and local politicians who believed the positions would be full-time. The county supervisor, Karen Mitchoff, called the hiring process a comedy of errors and said she never dreamed [the jobs] would be part-time.http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/354556/o...

WOW now that IS a classic case of a failed program. An ObamaCare call center not offering health care. AND companies are shortening the work week to 32 hours to avoid it.

When all is said and done and she is fully implemented WHO will be participants in ObamaCare? Anybody? Nobody?

So a HUGE NEW department is created with HUGE expenses for what?

I guess Obama and the Libertards can claim a wonderfull new program has been implemented that does what? Oh I forgot ObamaCare will be a vote getter for future elections.

I've been saying for years that if Obama personally cured cancer, the right would start railing against him for putting oncologists out of work.There are enough legitimate issues to be taken with Obama without turning every cough and sneeze into the bubonic plague.LOOKS LIKE they're "RIGHT".Am I missing something or is there NO MittiotCare thread ???

I seriously that you have been "saying for years that if Obama personally cured cancer, the right would start railing against him for putting oncologists out of work".

As President Obama barnstorms the country promoting his health care law, one audience very close to home is growing increasingly anxious about the financial implications of the new coverage: members of Congress and their personal staffs.

Under a wrinkle that dates back to enactment of the law, members of Congress and thousands of their aides are required to get their coverage through new state-based markets known as insurance exchanges.

But the law does not provide any obvious way for the federal government to continue paying its share of the premiums for the comprehensive coverage.

If the government cannot do so, it could mean an additional expense of $5,000 a year for individuals and $11,000 for families under some of the most popular plans.

I've been saying for years that if Obama personally cured cancer, the right would start railing against him for putting oncologists out of work.There are enough legitimate issues to be taken with Obama without turning every cough and sneeze into the bubonic plague.LOOKS LIKE they're "RIGHT".Am I missing something or is there NO MittiotCare thread ???

Be careful you don't fall off the Obamacare "cliff" when the boss asks you to put in some overtime.

Working more could ultimately mean thousands of dollars less for you under a quirk in the new health-care law going into effect this fall. This could prompt some people to cut back on their hours to avoid losing money.

Working more can actually leave you worse off," the price-comparison site ValuePenguin.com notes in a new analysis.

"It's sort of an absurd scenario," said Jonathan Wu, ValuePenguin.com 's co-founder. "It's something for people to be aware of."

In that scenario, an individual or family whose annual income surpasses maximums set by the federal governmentif only by $1will totally lose subsidies available to buy health insurance under the Affordable Care Act.

Let us do some basica math using this quote CBO now puts the net cost of Obamacares insurance coverage provisions at around $1.38 trillion over the next 10 years, vs. its May baseline projection of $1.36 trillion.

.02 is 1.5% of 1.36. So this decision is adding 1.5% to the cost of Healthcare reform, and the righties are being so petty that they are making a big deal out of 1.5%? When in effect this decision is a benefit to their supposed goal of giving businesses more flexibility.

Why would anyone EVER listen to a rightie anymore, they are just so caught up in the own web of outright lies, mistruths and/or exaggerations about ANYTHING associated with Obama.

Another illustration of, no matter the concern for anyone outside the cabal, it will be sacrificed for the greater good of the team that calls anyone who disagrees: liars, bigots and racists. It shall be so.

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